Samuel J. Aquila is installed as the fifth archbishop of Denver at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. Two days into his tenure of shepherding Denver's flock, the Aurora theater shooting massacre occurred.

Within two days of Samuel J. Aquila’s installation July 18 as the fifth archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, all the joy and excitement of that beginning drained away into the sorrow of the Aurora movie theater killings.

Aquila couldn’t have fully settled into his new residence and role before the focus of the world and his ministry became the Aurora mass murder — 12 killed and 58 wounded by a lone gunman who burst into a midnight showing July 20 of the new Batman movie.

“It’s a very real manifestation of evil and sin that fills our hearts with sorrow,” Aquila said in a public appearance.

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